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The FAA's Secrecy Around Drones Sparks Lawsuit

We know that drones are mighty popular for fighting wars, but how popular are they here in the U.S.? A privacy and civil liberties group has been trying to find out who currently has the right to fly drones in the States, but the Federal Aviation Administration — the gov agency with the power to give out drone licenses — has failed to respond to the group’s FOIA request. Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the Department of Transportation to get its hands on those records.

Any drone flying over 400 feet needs a certification or authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, part of the DOT. But there is currently no information available to the public about who specifically has obtained these authorizations or for what purposes. EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act request in April of 2011 for records of unmanned aircraft activities, but the DOT so far has failed to provide the information.

I’m sympathetic. While the EFF wants to know which law enforcement and government agencies currently have the right to fly drones (and surveil citizens), I’ve been wondering which private actors currently have the right to fly unmanned aircraft in the U.S.. I’ve also been stonewalled by the FAA in a year-old FOIA to find out which 18 private, nongovernmental actors have active “experimental certificates” to fly drones. I’ve come to understand that part of the reason for the delay is that the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft Program Office is a bit undermanned.

While it’s currently difficult to get permission to fly drones in U.S. airspace, the FAA is revisiting its restrictions with plans to release new rules later this year. Drone makers are pushing hard for this, hoping to expand the market for their products. Gretchen West, executive VP of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), an industry group that has been lobbying the FAA to free up air space for unmanned vehicles told me last year that “law enforcement agencies are chomping at the bit to get [drones] in the air.”

One drone maker’s representative said the NYPD had questioned them about the possibility of a drone with a loud speaker and listening device, which they could use when dealing with bridge jumpers (assuming the FAA ever gave them permission to use drones in New York‘s crowded airspace).

“As the government begins to make policy decisions about the use of these aircraft, the public needs to know more about how and why these drones are being used to surveil United States citizens,” said EFF attorney Jennifer Lynch in a statement.

EFF’s lawsuit seeks an immediate response to their FOIA request, which would tell us exactly who currently has permission to fly drones, and who has sought permission and been denied.

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Well, I know the NOAA, FEMA, FDA, Forestry Service, Secret Service, FBI, Border Partol, DHS, FAA itself, NASA, National Hurricane Center, and that OH Automous Aircraft group, can’t remember the actual name fly drones and have licenses. I bet the Geological Agencies, DOE, also. I am sure we could figure it out without getting into a “conspiracy theory” on the whole thing, or blowing the story out of proportion.

In the future we will have Counties doing property tax flyovers, nearly all police departments, news stations, aerial advertisers, regulatory agencies, FBI, drug war surveillance, port security, rail security, refinery security, prison security, DOT truck regulation compliance, I mean that’s the future, it will be unlimited. In fact, I wrote some Kindle eBooks on the topic of Future Concepts of all these things.

The FAA obviously wants to carefully study the safety issues and take it one-step at a time, that’s the prudent thing to do, they don’t need a media firestorm, we are trying to upgrade the rules as the technology evolves, so, please consider all this – nice article and topic by the way, kudos in that regard.

Additionally, I’d like to add this piece of information as to the seriousness of shared airspace and why this issue is critical for mid-air accidents: http://www.public.navy.mil/navsafecen/Documents/media/approach/2012/App_Jan-Feb_2012.pdf